"HOUSTON, STATION ON SPACE TO GROUND."

WELCOME TO SPACE TO GROUND, I’M DAN HUOT. WHAT A WAY TO END THIS DECADE IN SPACEFLIGHT.

BOEING’S CST-100 STARLINER SUCCESSFULLY RETURNED AFTER IT’S FIRST VOYAGE TO OUTER SPACE. THE MISSION STARTED WITH A SMOOTH RIDE UPHILL ATOP AN ATLAS V ROCKET BUT EXPERIENCED AN ISSUE SHORTLY AFTER SEPARATING. AFTER FLIGHT CONTROLLERS RIGHTED THE SPACECRAFT AND PUT IT IN ORBIT, IT WAS DETERMINED THEY WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO SUCCESSFULLY RENDEZVOUS AND DOCK WITH THE SPACE STATION. BUT RESOLUTE TO STILL ACCOMPLISH AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE ON THE DEMO FLIGHT, TEAMS EXECUTED A NUMBER OF CHECKOUTS BEFORE GUIDING THE CAPSULE TO A PICTURESQUE NIGHT TIME LANDING IN FRIGID WHITE SANDS, NEW MEXICO.

IT WAS A THRILLING END TO A JAM-PACKED YEAR FOR THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION.

IN ADDITION TO BOEING’S FIRST STARLINER FLIGHT, SPACEX CONDUCTED THEIR FIRST FLIGHT TO AND FROM THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION EARLIER THIS YEAR WITH THEIR NEW CREW DRAGON VEHICLE. BOTH FLIGHTS CONTINUE TO PUSH US FORWARD TO ONCE AGAIN LAUNCHING CREWS TO THE STATION FROM AMERICA, WITH 2020 LINING UP TO BE THE YEAR WE MAKE IT HAPPEN.

THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, WE SAW 3 CREWS FLY TO THE STATION ON THE RUSSIAN SOYUZ, WHERE THEY PERFORMED 11 SPACEWALKS AND WELCOMED 9 CARGO VEHICLES FROM NORTHROP GRUMMAN, SPACEX, RUSSIA AND THE JAPAN AEROSPACE EXPLORATION AGENCY. AND BETWEEN IT ALL, WORKED ON HUNDREDS OF EXPERIMENTS AND TECHNOLOGY DEMONSTRATIONS THAT BENEFIT HUMANS BACK ON EARTH AND LAY THE GROUNDWORK FOR OUR MISSION TO LAND THE FIRST WOMAN AND NEXT MAN ON THE MOON UNDER NASA’S ARTEMIS PROGRAM.

WITH ALL THOSE ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN THE BOOKS, 2020 IS POISED TO BE A HALLMARK YEAR IN STATION HISTORY.

WE’LL HIT THE GROUND RUNNING IN JANUARY WITH SPACEWALKS TO FINISH BATTERY UPGRADES AND WORK ON THE ALPHA MAGNETIC SPECTROMETER, WHILE BACK ON EARTH SPACEX WILL LAUNCH CREW DRAGON ON IT’S INFLIGHT ABORT TEST, ONE OF THE LAST MAJOR TESTS BEFORE PUTTING HUMANS ONBOARD.

NASA ASTRONAUT CHRISTINA KOCH WILL COME HOME IN FEBRUARY AS THE NEWEST RECORD HOLDER FOR LONGEST CONTINUOUS SPACEFLIGHT BY A FEMALE ASTRONAUT, AN INSPIRING END TO HER FIRST MISSION.

THEN STAY TUNED FOR THE FIRST FLIGHTS OF ASTRONAUTS WITH OUR COMMERCIAL CREW PROVIDERS BOEING AND SPACEX, THE FIRST TIME WE’LL SEND A CREW TO THE STATION FROM THE FLORIDA COAST SINCE THE SPACE SHUTTLE RETIRED IN 2011.

AND ON NOVEMBER 2, WE’LL MARK 20 UNBROKEN YEARS OF HUMANS LIVING, WORKING, SPACEWALKING, EXPERIMENTING AND FLYING IN HUMANITY’S HOME IN LOW-EARTH ORBIT.

AND THAT WILL DO IT FOR US IN 2019. THANKS FOR FOLLOWING ALONG AND SENDING IN YOUR QUESTIONS USING THE HASHTAG ASKNASA. WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT YEAR.